Letters to the editor: March 27, 2024 (print version)

Published 4:00 am Wednesday, March 27, 2024

Two aliens from Planet X were sent into space to find a new home for their tiny planet. Planet X would soon be consumed by a black hole so they had to find a suitable planet to relocate. Their scientists chose 23 possible planets in space. The two explorers were to spend one month at each site and find the best alternative.

Planet Earth was candidate No. 14. They landed in the USA and began to gather data. They had no knowledge of the politics of Earth. They found a beautiful planet with plenty of oxygen, sunlight and water. After visiting the entire country, the explorers were ready to make their report to the Supreme Council. It went as follows:

1) We don’t understand why the Americans choose a leader who is very old, senile, falls a lot, can’t remember so many things, and just makes up facts out of the air.

2) We don’t understand why this country allows themselves to be $33 trillion dollars in debt. Yet they always manage to find money for so many things that don’t matter, thus indebting their own grandchildren forever. They always have billions to give away and often to countries that hate them.

3) In searching the history of Earth, we find these people are constantly at war somewhere in the world.

4) We don’t understand why the USA would open their southern border to millions of illegal aliens who bring in disease, illicit drugs, sex trafficking and crime while these people’s needs and demands bankrupt border states.

Our conclusion for choice No. 14 is that we should not consider Earth for relocation. Their main concerns are greed, corruption and war. We leave for No. 15 tomorrow.

David Burns

Irrigon

It is certainly concerning that we are seeing a loss of farmland and many family farms closing at unprecedented rates across Oregon and the United States. One of the major factors driving this loss is the consolidation of our food system through the rise of factory farms.

Oregon is now home to some of the largest mega-dairies in the U.S. as well as dozens of beef feedlots, which have a huge impact on our family farms and communities. Analysis from Food & Water Watch of the United States Department of Agriculture 2022 Census of Agriculture data shows that in 2022 Oregon had fewer than half as many family-scale dairies as compared to 2002 — a net loss of 620 dairies. In the last year alone, the Census reported 126 fewer family-scale dairies across Oregon.

Decades of declining farm income hit smaller farms the hardest. They face the pressure to “get big or get out.” Expand their farms and adopt the factory farm model, or leave farming altogether. These corporate factory farms hurt not only our local family farmers, but have a documented history of contaminating our air and water.

However, despite the known risks to local communities and family farmers, Oregon regulators continue to grant permits to new and expanding factory farms. To address how corporate consolidation is putting our Oregon farmers and rural farmland at risk, the Oregon Legislature must enact a moratorium on new and expanding factory farms.

Aimee Travis

Portland

An article in the Rogue Valley Times described Oregon lawmakers letting die a bill that would ditch daylight saving time and make standard time permanent. The change would have been contingent on similar measures being adopted by Washington and California.

Everybody hates turning their clocks back and forth, but we suspect there would be more support for getting rid of the four months we spend on standard time, based on the fact that we’ve already agreed to it.

California voters approved a measure in 2018 making daylight saving time permanent. In 2019 Washington legislators overwhelmingly passed a bill to stay on permanent daylight saving time, and that same year so did the Oregon Legislature.

And for good reason: No sooner does it already get dark too early in the fall than we have to turn the clocks back and make it get dark an hour earlier. No wonder people get seasonal affective disorder.

The complicating factor is that states can decide on their own to remain on standard time, but remaining on daylight saving time literally requires an act of Congress, which can hardly agree to keep the government open much less do anything useful.

In spite of the difficulty, we believe that pursuing what people actually want, and have already agreed to, would be worth the effort.

Michael and Barbara Steely

Medford